Vinyl beat No. 1 seed Lunar Owls and Unrivaled MVP Napheesa Collier, will play Rose for title
MEDLEY, Fla. (AP) — Rhyne Howard scored 23 points, Jordin Canada added 21 and the No. 4 seed Vinyl beat the top-seeded Lunar Owls and Napheesa Collier of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, who was named Unrivaled’s Most Valuable Player earlier Sunday, 73-70 in the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league’s playoffs.
Dearica Hamby added 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Vinyl and her layup over Collier sealed the Vinyl’s come-from-behind victory in the semifinals. Chelsea Gray of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces led the second-seeded Rose to a 63-57 win over the No. 3 Laces in their semifinal earlier Sunday.
Vinyl and Rose will play on Monday for Unrivaled’s inaugural championship crown, with each player from the winning club going home with $50,000.
“We’ve kind of been counted out the entire season, considered ourselves underdogs,” said Hamby, who plays for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “But that didn’t show in our locker room. We never stopped believing in ourselves.”
Gray had a dominant performance for the Rose, who were without their leading rebounder and Unrivaled Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese because of a hand injury. The veteran guard Gray helped her team erase a 13-point halftime deficit with 39 points, the most in an Unrivaled game this season. She also hit the game-winning 3-pointer.
Unrivaled games are played with three seven-minute quarters and an un-timed fourth. Teams play to a “winning score” determined by adding 11 points to the squad that is leading after three quarters.
Collier, the reigning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, led Unrivaled with 25.7 points per game en route to being voted the league’s first MVP. She averaged 10.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists for the Lunar Owls, who were a favorite to win the championship after finishing the regular season with the best record in the league at 13-1. Collier also took home $200,000 last month after winning Unrivaled’s midseason 1-on-1 tournament.
“It’s been a great season. We said from the very beginning that we had a very special group,” said Collier, who had 36 points on Sunday. “It’s a tough ending for us.”
Unrivaled played an eight-week regular season between six teams consisting of some of the biggest names in the WNBA — Reese, new Atlanta Dream center Brittney Griner, New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, among others.
The top four teams from the regular season reached Sunday’s playoffs.
___